The month of the cheater

Jason Ferguson

Published: Thursday, January 24th, 2013

Forgive me if I’m a little bit jaded about sports right now. You see, it seems to me that January was the month of the cheater.

All of the great things that have happened in the sports world this month, such as the NFL playoffs and the BCS National Championship game have been drowned out by the topic of cheating. Whether it was the voting for the baseball hall of fame or the Lance Armstrong saga, cheating has been the order of the day for the past few weeks.

When the baseball hall of fame voting was revealed, no one on the ballot was elected to the hall. Not the greatest home run hitter of all time. Not arguably the greatest pitcher of all time. Not two of the other top home run hitters of all time, one of whom has hit 600 career home runs. And why? They cheated.

Well, some are proven cheats. Barry Bonds admits to using performance-enhancing drugs (PEDS), but says he didn’t “knowingly” use them. If you believe a world class athlete, who relies on their body for their income, put something into their body unknowingly, I have a bridge I would like to sell you.

Mark McGwire admitted to using PEDs, and said he wouldn’t vote for himself for the hall of fame. Roger Clemens has never failed a drug test and has done a fine job of dodging every PED landmine that is put in front of him, but where there is smoke there is fire. You don’t suddenly have the best athletic years of your life at the age of 40, as Roger would like us to believe is the case.

Forgive me if I’m a little bit jaded about sports right now. You see, it seems to me that January was the month of the cheater.

All of the great things that have happened in the sports world this month, such as the NFL playoffs and the BCS National Championship game have been drowned out by the topic of cheating. Whether it was the voting for the baseball hall of fame or the Lance Armstrong saga, cheating has been the order of the day for the past few weeks.

When the baseball hall of fame voting was revealed, no one on the ballot was elected to the hall. Not the greatest home run hitter of all time. Not arguably the greatest pitcher of all time. Not two of the other top home run hitters of all time, one of whom has hit 600 career home runs. And why? They cheated.

Well, some are proven cheats. Barry Bonds admits to using performance-enhancing drugs (PEDS), but says he didn’t “knowingly” use them. If you believe a world class athlete, who relies on their body for their income, put something into their body unknowingly, I have a bridge I would like to sell you.

Mark McGwire admitted to using PEDs, and said he wouldn’t vote for himself for the hall of fame. Roger Clemens has never failed a drug test and has done a fine job of dodging every PED landmine that is put in front of him, but where there is smoke there is fire. You don’t suddenly have the best athletic years of your life at the age of 40, as Roger would like us to believe is the case.

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